Thompsonfly may suspend flights to Israel

Thompsonfly, a British subsidiary of the largest tour operator in Europe, TUI, has been operating four weekly flights between London – Tel Aviv and Manchester – Tel Aviv since November 2007.  It is now considering whether to discontinue its flights to Israel.   A spokesman for the company said that a decision will be made in the coming months

Thomsonfly which operates four weekly flights and is the main operator from Luton and Manchester Airports for flights to Israel, have announced that probably in May they expect to make a final decision on whether to continue flights to Israel.   A spokesman for the company in Israel reported “For now services are operating normally, but we will advise when a final decision is made”

Thomsonfly began operating scheduled flights to Israel in June 2007, specialising in providing the lowest cost fares on tickets purchased a long time in advance.  Based on statistics from the Israel Airports Authority, during 2008 the company flew 109,000 passengers. According to their representatives in Israel, Holiday Travel owned by Moni Bar; Thomsonfly took about 14% of the market share of flights to England during their first year of service.  However, with the reduction in world passenger traffic and from Israel in particular  - In January 2009 the company flew 7,740 passengers, a reduction of close to 15% - plus the fact that passenger traffic to London recently fell by between 10%-20%,  Thomsonfly is reconsidering whether it is worth continuing their service to Israel.

Another reason is the growing competition developing on this route, with the introduction of an additional daily flight by bmi and of low-cost airline Jet2.com who will soon start operating a weekly charter flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv in direct competition with Thomson.